Basketball: Ducks lose another freshman guard

Nine days after Oakland’s Jabari Brown left the program, Oregon lost another freshman guard when Bruce Barron defected.

Coach Dana Altman was in no mood to discuss the situation at length: “We’ll move forward with the 13 players we have on the team. I’m not going to talk anymore about guys not on the team. We’ll just move on from here.”

Update: Word from Eugene is the two guys are buddies and may be looking to sign elsewhere as a “package deal.”

Elsewhere, the Pac-10 won two of three and is 8-1 for the week . . .

— USC 56, UC Riverside 35: The Trojans (4-4) got 11 points from Greg Allen and beat a UCR team with a win over Washington State. USC held the Highlanders to 11 second-half points.

— Creighton 85, San Diego State 83: The Aztecs (7-2), who host Cal on Sunday, lost at home to the Bluejays (6-0), despite 21 points from point guard Xavier Thames, a sophomore transfer from Washington State.

Please do not offer these guys scholarships, regardless of their potential. I smell problems with both and how they left their program up in Duckville. Very reminiscent of Franklin here at Cal last year.

I think the first year leave before the new year is the new one-and-done. You’re going to see more of this for kids that have to be the center of attention and get big stats, or who can’t deal with school.